OK then, I’ll give it a shot as well. G/CE-005, 5W and a 20m GP. Using the UK call, M0HZH. Posting an alert now.
Thanks,
Razvan.
Edit: VOACAP says optimal path is around 9AM on 15m and that generally 15m and 17m are better bands to use. Should we agree on a 15m frequency as well ?
Settings: London to Melbourne, 5W and 1/4wl on both sides, FT8.
FT8 CHASER
Just to confirm that I will be active on FT8 14.092Mhz with my TX + or - that freq. I will start listening at 06:00 local time for Sota Activators. Calls that I see will be active so far are. M1EYP/P, M0HZH/P VK2HRX, VK1DA/3, JI3BAP/3, VK3BCM. VK5CZ, BX2AFU, Good Luck everyone & hope to work you.
73’ Don GW0PLP IO72 West Coast of Wales.
Hi Razvan,
That VOACAP prediction cannot include the MUF and that needs to be high enough at the right times before the 17 &15m bands are usable, which it hasn’t over the last couple of days. (today is a little better).
Here is a great site to give you an indication of MUF at different distances and CF at the UK/EU end.
Even though it’s not shown on the VOACAP diagram, going by recent experience - I’d say your best chance from the UK would be around 1100-1200 UTC on 20m Short Path. That’s around 10pm at night in Eastern Australia however.
The 20m 0700-0800 UTC (which co-incides nicely with the VK late afternoon/dusk time) green block shown is for long path and that’s been very bad of late.
As always however if no one goes out and tries, all the predictions in the world are worth nothing when conditions suddenly change and you get through for 5 minurtes.
By the way there’s a G1 level storm hitting the Ionosphere at the moment so expect a higher background noise level on the bands.
73 Ed.
Hi Ed,
of course, VOACAP just offers probabilities for a certain path, not exact predictions.
I’ve adjusted the chart with 1/4wl antenna on all bands (I’m still not used to the new version of VOACAP). The 20m at 7AM window is actually short path, but there is a (slightly better) 20m window at 9AM via long path.
I estimate that my willingness to sit in the snow with a tablet in my hand might be the limiting factor though 
.
OK, if the 7am window on 20m is short path - that’s 6pm in VIC, NSW & the ACT, 5:30pm in VK5 South Australia or 3pm in Perth (but your VOACAP is for Melbourne not Perth) - so that could be worth a try for an S2S - any later and unless the VK stations are camping on a summit, they will probably be heading down.
I wish you luck! … and warm fingers - operating a tablet in the cold (or any touch screen) can be pretty horrible, my experience is that they become unresponsive in the cold or even trigger different actions to what you clicked.
I take it you’re NOT in the south west of England? They seem to be getting hit pretty bad with snow storms at the moment!
73 Ed.
Yeah both my phone and tablet screens stopped working on the summit yesterday! And the SOTA Pole joins froze hard, and I had to carry it down fully extended to 7m!
Back at the car, I fed it through the passenger side window and had the heater on full blast. One by one, I was able to loosen a joint and gradually feed the pole back in!
The extra three degrees afforded by the bothy bag might be crucial tomorrow!
@M1EYP - had the same experience the other evening with the pole attached to the back of the car in static-mobile configuration. Had it not been a perfectly dry evening and the judicious application of spit and hand rubbing I don’t know what I’d have done!
I may venture out tomorrow morning, just reading the weather report and what is needed. I have an MCHF configured up with a laptop which I could use.
Regards, Mark. M0NOM
Hi Ian, What you are talking about is using the DXpedition feature. This has some extra changes in which parts of the 2.5kHz frequency “band” are used by the “fox” and the “hound” and parrallel contacts on the Fox side are possible - this mode is incompatible with “normal” FT8 mode. I don’t think people will be using this will they? Also has a solution been agreed on how to pass the SOTA reference and “normal” sig report (not dB)?
73 Ed.
I’ve had pole joints freeze very tight at times. Your hands are normally only good for one or two frozen joints before they too are cold and no use. A small portable heat source is the best fix in these circumstances.
Understood. When VOACAP went away for a while I moved to this service instead:http://www.predtest.uk/p2p.html
Here’s the predictions for 20m EU-VK 50W ERP FT8 tomorrow:
Two SOTA stations rxd on 14.092 FT8 so far - DL4FO and M0HZH/P. Neither of them has heard my replies yet, so just SWL logs atm.
Seen GW0PLP on the band activity window, but no DX yet. Just one QSO so far - IK2LEY.
Bitterley cold at -3 deg C!
Listening but nothing heard from you so far Tom.
For DX - 40m looks better than 20m at the moment.
MUF under 10MHz
73 Ed…
Sorry, Tom, not the slightest trace of any signal on 14.092. Trying to call you again just now. I am at home with 80 watts into 2 el. Yagi.
Chris
Tom
The PSK reporter web site does not show ANY VK stations being receive in the UK currently on 20 m. Germany is the closest station reporting reception of VK stations. Using an non standard frequency severely reduces the number of stations possibly monitoring your signal to know where you are being heard. Southern part of UK receiving VK stations on 30m.
Good Luck
Burke KF7NP
Only seen 2 stations on my screen DD5LP, IK2LEY I have Been calling CQDX every ten mins or so. 07:49 a station tried to contact me a couple of times but I failed to see who it was. Will stick with it and see how it goes.
Don GW0PLP.
Hi Tom
FT8 not hill-ready (yet?) but thought I’d have a listen from home… 20m seems really quiet this morning, even for my “compromise” setup - just a small crop of European/Eastern European stations and no SOTA ops heard.
Take care and keep warm!
73 de Paul G4MD
Giving it another try on 14.092 now. Loads of JA, HL etc RX on 074, so fingers crossed.
By ear I was picking up something, but no decodes on 14.092 unfortunately ; 14.074 was booming with signals by the way. Anyways, I had to shut down quickly.
In the weirdest reaction to cold yet, my homebrew interface decided it doesn’t want to work anymore. At first it had problems keeping PTT on for a full cycle and about 30 minutes in it wouldn’t trigger PTT at all. I guess the Huang brand of electrolytics isn’t suited for outdoors, who would’ve thought 
.
Xiegu X5105
Toshiba Z30
homebrew audio interface
Hi Don, yes I saw on PSK reporter that you had heard me. as I was receiving nothing in the list on 14.092 (all OK on .094) - I decided to put out a couple of CQs to see if I could start something. unfortunately I didn’t see / receive your CQ Don (and with CQDX, I wouldn’t have responded in any case).
Looks like conditions were pretty attrociuos but I noted that a lot of the stations were trying on 20m while the MUF was below 10MHz.
73 Ed.
No contacts here but that was just down to poor propagation I guess. I still enjoyed taking part in the experiment. I would also be interested in any future experiments especially to North America maybe on 17mtrs sometime. Shift work dependent here of course.
73’ Don GW0PLP
